A laundry treatment apparatus refers to an apparatus that washes laundry using friction between a drum and the laundry and friction between the laundry and wash water stored in a tub by rotating the drum placed inside the tub, or that dries laundry stored in a drum.
A conventional laundry treatment apparatus that enables washing of laundry includes a tub in which wash water is stored and a drum in which laundry is stored, the drum being rotatably installed inside the tub. The laundry treatment apparatus is adapted to wash laundry using heated wash water (hot water) and includes a heating device to heat the wash water inside the tub.
The conventional laundry treatment apparatus as described above takes a long time to heat wash water to a desired temperature because the wash water must be heated using a single heating device, which problematically increases the time taken by a so-called hot water course (i.e. a course to wash laundry using hot water).
In addition, the conventional laundry treatment apparatus may cause overheating of the heating device when a great quantity of electric power is supplied to the heating device in order to reduce the heating time.
In addition, in the conventional laundry treatment apparatus, when the on/off period of the heating device is reduced to prevent overheating, the lifespan of the heating device as well as that of a switch provided for the control of the heating device may be reduced.